Asia, British Indian Ocean Territory

Chagos Archipelago, also Oil Islands, group of small islands, constituting the British Indian Ocean Territory (a dependency of the United Kingdom), in the central Indian Ocean, south of India. In the 1970s, Diego Garcia, an atoll at the southern end of the group, became the site of a U.S. communications center and naval base. The islands, which have no permanent civilian inhabitants, were administered from Mauritius until organized as the British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965. Area, 60 sq km (20 sq mi).